Rimaykullayki!
At least that’s one of the ways you say hello in Quechua, but there are many variations across Peru and Bolivia. Most of the mountains surrounding the small city of Huaraz still proudly bear their Quechua names. Alpamayo, considered the most beautiful mountain in the world, means “Dirty River” or “Earth River” according to our wonderful guide. Javier coaxed Jon and I along with 6 others through the beautiful Cordillera Blancas on the 4 day Santa Cruz trek. This was trekking in style! Over-friendly donkeys carried all our equipment and Javier and the donkey driver cooked us tasty dinners and breakfasts which we ate in a warm turquoise tepee seated on stools around an explosive gas lantern. We had contemplated going it alone and hauling our heavy packs along the trail, but the combination of the altitude and our recently unhappy stomachs convinced us to drop our tough hiker attitude and go with the luxury of a guiding company. We never once regretted it! Along the trail Javier would name the various icy peaks, describe the medicinal properties of the various local plants, pick wild fruit for us to try, ward off aggressive bulls and teach us a little about the local culture. In the cold evenings it was lovely sitting in our warm dinning tent eating popcorn, drinking coca tea and making new friends while waiting for our dinner.
Huaraz has been the highlight of the past 3 months. The town itself isn’t anything special; however it’s surrounded by the sheer peaks of the Cordillera Blanca, many of which are between 5000 and 6000m. The high reaches of these mountains are covered in beautiful ice sculptures, with huge crevassed glaciers, vertical ice cliffs with delicate fluting and bulbous mushrooms of snow perched precariously on top of rock steeples. It´s devastating to think that these tropical glaciers are rapidly retreating and many of them will have vanished in just 10 years time. What will these mountain communities do without their water supply? Narrow valleys with towering cliff walls sanded smooth from old glaciers reach out from the peaks and passes. Hiking up these impressive canyons dripping with colourful flowers and trees and buzzing with giant hummingbirds is the only way to reach the breathtaking mountain views.
Before our 4 day camping adventure on the Santa Cruz trek we spent a few nights at a lodge nestled in the mountains high above Huaraz from where you could hike straight from the front door into the mountains and be back in time to watch sunset from the hammock and enjoy a candle-lit dinner. We spent the peaceful evenings reading our books while curled up in front of the wood-burning stove until the last night when the young British owner arrived with her loud techno music!!
Tomorrow we catch our last bus, which we’re very excited about, to Lima. We’ve been counting down the bus journeys. The long-distance rides are often comfortable but last between10 to 28 hours and the short hops are terrifying since you’re squeezed into tiny, battered mini-vans with bald tires carrying double the number of passengers for which there are seats while driving along bumpy roads winding their way through the mountains. Just don’t look out the windows at the sheer drops below you or at the crumbling cliffs above and remember to breathe slowly. This is the true adrenaline adventure sport of the Andes.
We’re home on Saturday and can’t wait to get in touch with everyone. This is the last post from South America from us, though photos will be following soon. Thanks for reading my posts. I hope they were entertaining.
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